204 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



and carries it about with it as a protection while it is 

 feeding.* 



An inquiring friend of Reaumur having found one of 

 these insects floating about in its muff-tent upon water, 

 conchided that they fed upon aquatic plants ; but he was 

 soon convinced that it had only been blown down by an 

 accident, which must frequently happen, as willows so 

 often hang over water. May it not be, that the buoyant 

 materials of the tent were intended to furnish the little 

 inhabitant with a life-boat, in which, when it chanced 

 to be blown into the water, it might sail safely ashore and 

 regain its native tree ? 



Leaf-mining Caterpillars. 



The process of mining between the two membranes of 

 a leaf is carried on to more extent by minute caterpillars 

 allied to the tent-makers above described. The tent-maker 

 never deserts his house, except when compelled, and there- 

 fore can only mine to about half the length of his own 

 body ; but the miners now to be considered make the mine 

 itself their dwelling-place, and as they eat their way, they 

 lengthen and enlarge their galleries. A few of these 

 mining caterpillars are the progeny of small weevils 

 {Carcidionidce), some of two- winged flies (Diptent), but the 

 greater number are produced from a genus of minute moths 

 {(Ecophora, Latr.), which, when magnified, appear to be 

 amongst the most splendid and brilliant of Nature's produc- 

 tions, vying even with the humming-birds and diamond- 

 beetles of the tropics in the rich metallic colours which 

 bespangle their wings. Well may Bonnet call them " tiny 

 miracles of nature," and regret that they are not en grand.^ 



There are few plants or trees whose leaves may not, 

 at some season of the year, be found mined by these 

 caterpillars, the track of whose progress appears on the 

 upper surface in winding lines. Let us take one of the 

 most common of these for an example, — that of the rose- 



* Keaumm-, iii. p. 130. 



t Bonnet, ' Contempl. do la Xatmv,' part xii. 



